Santi Cañizares has taken aim at Barcelona over their decision to sell Ferran Torres to Paris Saint-Germain for 50 million euros. The former Spain and Real Madrid goalkeeper argues the Catalan club picked the wrong moment to cash in, letting the forward go just as he had overcome his early struggles and hit a stage of maturity and stability.
Cañizares renewed his objection to the transfer in comments carried by Spanish newspaper "Sport". Signing Torres in the first place was smart, he insists, but selling him precisely when the player had begun producing his best level and proving he could make a difference was a mistake.
Barcelona have been busy in the transfer market. They wrapped up several deals, including the signings of Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Jesse Bicio, while pressing on to complete moves for Rodri and Joao Cancelo. They are also hunting an out-and-out striker, with Argentina's Julian Alvarez top of their list.
The squad changed plenty in return. Ansu Fati, Yann Vergili and Iñaki Peña all departed, while Ronald Araujo and Marc-André ter Stegen left on loan. Yet for Cañizares, the Torres sale to PSG remained the most contentious of the lot.
The Spanish goalkeeper cast his mind back to Torres's difficult beginnings. His switch from Valencia to English football threw him into major challenges, and the struggle to settle within a strong team hit both his appearances and his confidence.
Cañizares reckons Barcelona got it right when they gambled on Torres, but chose the wrong time to end the experiment. "Barcelona signed him cleverly, and it is difficult to adapt to Barcelona," he said. "He ends up adapting, he ends up shining, he goes through the best moment of his career, he scores a goal in the final, and now it is time to sell him. The opposite is true."
The 50 million euro fee did not convince him either. Can Barcelona really find a guaranteed striker of the same value in the market?
"Don't let him go for free, but 50 million euros is not a gift," he added. "He is a forward who scores goals, go to the market and see what you can get for that amount."
None of this, the former goalkeeper stressed, was a knee-jerk reaction. He had panned the deal throughout the summer. "I kept repeating this all summer, and I cannot understand it," he said.